The Knot Handbook: 50 Essential Knots and Their Uses

The Knot Handbook is an essential guide to 50 knots and their uses. A fresh redesign of the bestselling The Knot Handbook, this book is an old favourite of a classic craft that is now being re-imagined for new and old readers alike. This book shows readers how to tie 50 knots. Some have been chosen for their fame, some for their beauty, and some because they are knots that everyone should know how to tie. On every great theme, there are always possible variations, and, as the text makes clear, from time to time people come up with new effective methods of tying. Some of us may be destined to create knots that will bear our names for eternity, but first we need to study the time-honoured techniques: an intricate art that has been practised since before poetry or painting were dreamt of, which can’t be mastered in five minutes. Many of the knots featured are strongly associated with – and probably originated – from sailing, but even the saltiest of them have extensive applications on land: adhesive tape and Velcro have their uses, but they have not rendered knots redundant; no technological advance ever will. Knots are classified by their areas of use: climbing, boating, scouting, camping, arborist, rescue, fishing, household, archery, general, equestrian, livestock, indicated by colour coded symbols.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 6 Alpine Butterfly Loop 8 Anchor Bend 10 Angler’s Knot 12 Ashley Stopper Knot 14 Blackwall Hitch 16 Blood Knot 18 Boa Knot 20 Bowline 21 Bowstring Knot 22 Brummel Eye Splice 24 Buntline Hitch 26 Carrick Bend 28 Cat’s Paw 32 Chain Sennit 34 Chain Splice 36 Cleat Hitch 38 Clove Hitch 40 Constrictor Knot 42 Cow Hitch 43 Double Dragon 44 Double Fisherman’s Bend 46 Eye Splice 50 Half Hitch 52 Handcuff Knot 54 Klemheist Knot 56 Lanyard Knot 58 Lighterman’s Hitch 60 Lover’s Knot 63 Man Harness Knot 64 Marlinspike Hitch 66 Midshipman’s Hitch 68 Monkey’s Fist 70 Myrtle Hitch 74 Noose 76 Overhand Knot 78 Prusik Knot 80 Reef Knot 82 Rolling Hitch 84 Rope Ladder Knot 86 Sheepshank 88 Sheet Bend 90 Surgeon’s Knot 98 Thief Knot 100 Threaded Figure Eight 102 Timber Hitch 104 Trucker’s Hitch 106 Turle Knot 108 Zeppelin Bend 110  

About the Author :
George Lewis is the author of several books including Mates for Life and Strange Mates (Ammonite Press) and Castles and Waterfalls (Park Lane Books). He also contributes to newspapers, magazines, encyclopaedias and partworks. Lewis learned about knots in the 1950s from herring fishermen on his ancestral Isle of Man. Pupil and teachers have long gone their separate ways: the former, like most Manxmen, to the British mainland through economic necessity; the latter into the history books after the Irish Sea was trawled to near exhaustion. Lewis retains the traditional knowledge and here demonstrates that knots can give us so much more than the means to catch the traditional accompaniment to chips.